Re: sr@Latn vs desktop files

From: Pablo Saratxaga <pablo mandrakesoft com>

To: gnome-i18n gnome org

Subject: Re: sr@Latn vs desktop files

Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 18:04:11 +0200

Kaixo!
On Mon, May 19, 2003 at 04:48:23PM +0200, Martin Norbäck wrote:
> The specification for LC_* values doesn't mandate that the codes used
> must be ISO language and country codes, even though that seems to always
> be the case in glibc. So maybe it's better to encode the fact that a
> different script is used into the COUNTRY (or territory as it's called
> in the specification).
>
> Something like sr_YUlatin and sr_YUcyrillic? I don't know the
> implications on other things, like fallbacks to sr_YU and sr.
While it's true that it can be any free text (well, using a restricted
character set), your proposition is likely to generate much more
trouble than using the modifiers
> It seems that the @modifier wasn't meant to separate at this high level.
I disagree.
The modifier is intended to convey an information that can distinguish
two locales that are the same regarding the language, country and encoding.
Which is the case here.
So modifier is the "right" thing to do.
> BTW, is there an automatic translation from one script to the other? If
> that's the case, maybe it could be built into the system somehow.
95% or more can be translittered automatically from cyrillic to latin.
But, in particular for foreign names, you may want to do things differently
in latin or cyrillic.
For example in cyrillic "linuks" (in cyrillic, of course), but in latin
script you may want to have it written "linux".
In cyrillic version, people name that are natively written in cyrillic
(eg: russian, ukrainian, bulgarian, etc.) may be wanted to remain natively
in cyrillic; but in latin script the transcription may be different depending
on the language, or the way that people wants to write his/her name in
latin letters.
So, it isn't 100% automatisable.
Note also that some cyrillic letters correspond to two letters in latin
script; and that requires some context analysis to get the right
capitalization to use.
--
Ki ça vos våye bén,
Pablo Saratxaga
http://chanae.walon.org/pablo/ PGP Key available, key ID: 0xD9B85466
[you can write me in Walloon, Spanish, French, English, Italian or Portuguese]